Tuesday, November 06, 2012

US President Elections of the "2" Years

As in 2012, every 20 years in a "2" year is a US Presidential Election.

1792 - Christian Eby born 1743 in Lancaster PA, 3rd great grandfather of Gladys Hiestand Uible (her paternal grandfather's great grandfather), could have been eligible to vote if he owned property. – George Washington was elected to his second term, running unopposed.

1812 - Sarah Jane Wilson Morrow (1812-1885) was born in Virginia though she would have never been able to vote for president (see 1912). She was the grandmother of Lucie Sarah Brown Ballantyne. – James Madison, 4th President of the US was elected to a second term, with Elbridge Gerry as 5th V-P. They defeated Federalist DeWitt Clinton and his running mate Jared Ingersoll.

1832 - James L. Freeman, 1809-1892, grandfather of Nathaniel Wallace Ballantyne, could have voted – Andrew Jackson, the incumbent was elected to a second term as 7th President with Martin Van Buren continuing as the 8th V-P. John C. Calhoun had served as VP during Jackson's first term.

1852 -Annie Ballantyne, sister of Alexander Bell Ballantyne, and aunt of Nathaniel Wallace Ballantyne was born in 1852. She would not have been eligible to vote until 1919, however. – Franklin Pierce, Democrat, elected as 14th President, with William Rufus King as 13th V-P. They defeated Winfield Scott, Whig candidate and John P. Hale, Free Soil candidate.

1872 - [Ira Franklin Hiestand, born 1851, father of Gladys Hiestand Uible voted in his first presidential election.] – Ulysses S. Grant, the Republican incumbent, continued as 18th President. Henry Wilson of Massachusetts became the 18th Vice-President. The previous vice-president, Schuyler Colfax was not renominated due to a scandal involving the Union Pacific Railroad's transcontinental line and the financing thereof. The unsuccessful candidate, a Liberal Republican (but also supported by the Democrats), was Horace Greeley and his running mate Benjamin Gratz Brown.

1892 - [Gladys Hiestand Uible was born] – Incumbent Benjamin Harrison, Republican of Indiana, lost to former President Grover Cleveland, Democrat of New York who became the 24th President of the US and only person in American history to be elected to a second, non-consecutive term. Harrison's running mate was James Whitelaw Reid who was born and raised on a farm near Xenia, Ohio. Reid, an 1856 graduate of Miami University, was the author of Ohio in the Civil War and was a longtime editor of the New York Tribune and a close friend of Horace Greeley. Cleveland's running mate, who became the 23rd Vice President of the US, was Adlai Stevenson I, a former congressman from Illinois.

1912 - [Cecil Uible marries Gladys Hiestand, Cecil would have been able to vote in this election though the 19th amendment extending voting rights to women was not ratified until June 1919.] A four-way contest for the presidency in 1912 included the following candidates: Democrat Woodrow Wilson of NJ running with Thomas R. Marshall of Indiana; former President Theodore Roosevelt ran on the Progressive ticket with Hiram Johnson of California as his running mate; William Howard Taft, Republican was the incumbent with Nicholas Murray Butler of NJ as his running mate; and Eugene V. Debs, Socialist of Indiana ran with Emil Seidel, who was the first Socialist mayor of a major city, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 1910-1912. Woodrow Wilson was elected as the 28th President and Thomas R. Marshall served as the 28th Vice-President.

1932 - [Robert Brown Ballantyne, born 1910, brother of Jean Uible votes in first presidential election]Franklin D. Roosevelt, Democrat of NY, and his running mate, John Nance Garner of Texas, defeated incumbent Herbert Hoover, Republican of California, whose running mate was Charles Curtis, the 31st VP and a long time senator from Kansas. Garner became the 32nd Vice President and Roosevelt the 32nd President.

1952 - [First presidential election in which Harold & Jean both voted as residents of New Vienna.] Dwight D. Eisenhower, a 5-star general in the US Army during WW2, became the 34th President with Richard Nixon as the 36th VP. They defeated Adlai Stevenson II, whose father ran for VP in 1892, and his running mate John Sparkman from Alabama.

1972 - [Catherine votes in her first presidential election as voting age was reduced from 21 to 18 by ratification of the 26th Amendment in 1970.]Richard Nixon became 37th President of the US with Spiro Agnew the 39th Vice-President. The Democratic nominee was George McGovern.

1992 - [Ginny is born, will vote for President in 2012!] Bill Clinton became the 42nd President and Al Gore the 45th Vice-President. The Republican nominee was George H.W. Bush and his running mate was Dan Quayle. Ross Perot also ran as a strong independent candidate.